The Effect of Body Language on Others

There is a man on second base with two outs. The hitter hits an easy pop up to left-fielder that should be an easy routine play and the third out of the inning. Instead, the ball pops out of his glove and lands on the ground. The runner from second scores and the hitter ends up on second base.

The pitcher, in disbelief, throws his hands up in the air mouthing cuss words that every viewer can read as the camera immediately is zoomed in on his face after the play. The manager in the dugout has his hands on his head looking down at the ground with his mouth wide open. The center fielder stares at him then puts his head down shaking.

As the left fielder looks around the field for any sign of someone picking him up to let him know everything is ok, there is no one. In that moment, there is not one person in the stadium that feels worse than he does. He feels awful for the pitcher and the rest of his teammates and has no clue how he wasn’t able to make such an easy play, but sure does wish he had a good excuse.

The nerves in his body that tightened up on the play, have just escalated to a level where he has to do everything possible to not look rattled. His emotions and sensitivity are heightened. He hears thousands of “boos” while he tries to regain his composure and focus on the next play, and as he looks around, he overanalyzes every action from his teammates and coaches looking for some sense of social acceptance.

At this moment, his teammates have the opportunity to either isolate him, and tear him down or lift him up. In the scenario presented, the reaction from the center fielder, the manager, and the pitcher, have just compounded the problem. The signs of disgust and disappointment have not motivated the left fielder, but have instilled fear and shredded his confidence.

The quicker a player is able to forget about failure, the better chance he has to have success in his next opportunity. If he is consumed with the thoughts of failure, he will never be able to regain confidence and visualize success. It is impossible to be your best and live in the moment, if your mind is stuck dwelling on the past.

Teammates have the ability through body language to show they have confidence in one other. They have the ability to help each other forget about the past and focus on the present.

Imagine if the reaction was different. Immediately after the left fielder drops the ball the pitcher reacts as if a routine single was hit to left, and maintains focus on the next hitter coming up. When the inning is over, he goes over to the left fielder and pats him on the back letting him know everything is alright.

Before returning to his position, the centerfielder comes over and pats the left fielder on his butt with his glove, and gives him and little fist pump, and tells him “it’s all good, we got this. Get the next one.” He returns to his position and re-engages with him on positioning for the next hitter, returning everything to normalcy.

The manager, after the ball is dropped, remains stoic through the play, shifting his focus to the new situation presented and re-engaging with his coaches and players accordingly. When the left fielder returns to the dugout after the third out is made, he walks over to him, puts his hand on his shoulder and gives him a chuckle saying “shit happens, no worries.”

My brother Chris used to tell me this hilarious story of playing left field for the Cardinals. His whole life he was a first baseman, and with Albert Pujols playing first base for the Cardinals, the only way he could get to the big leagues was playing left field, and it’s safe to say that he wasn’t the best left-fielder in the world.

There was a day he was playing at Wrigley against the Chicago Cubs, and early in the game, he had an easy routine fly ball. As he got under it, he started to hear all the crazies in the left-field bleachers getting louder. The closer the ball got, the louder the fans got. By the time the ball was entering his glove, every muscle in his body was rock solid stiff, and there was nothing else the ball could do aside from bouncing out of his glove.

The fans went nuts!!! He rushed over to the ball and threw it in, and did everything possible to act like he wasn’t phased. Two innings had gone by where he didn’t get a fly ball, and every inning he had to put up with vicious abuse from the fans in the bleachers who were just getting more and more drunk. Then finally he had another routine fly ball. He had to go a little bit to his right, but not far. He got under it early, and started to hear the heckles again, this time ten times louder. As the ball got closer, the fans got louder. As the fans got louder, he got stiffer.

The ball came down, and this time went right in his glove and stayed there. He immediately fist pumped before throwing the ball in to the infield, saying it was the most excited he has ever been catching a routine fly-ball. After he caught it, he got loudest mock cheer someone could get. He looked over to Jim Edmonds in center, and got a huge smile from him.

As hard as it was for Chris at times playing left field, the actions of his teammates, coaches and manager always made him feel loved and part of the team. That love allowed him to be the best he could be. It allowed him to move from one moment to the next and play without fear. He was able to thrive at the plate without negative feelings of defense haunting him in the back of his mind, and was able to work as hard as he could as a left fielder with a focus on pushing himself to improve rather than practice with a fear of failure.

Similar scenarios can play out for any situation.

• A ground ball goes through an infielder’s legs.
• A pitcher airmails a ball to the backstop.
• A batter strikes out, swinging at three breaking balls out of the strike zone.
• A base-runner gets thrown out at third base trying to go first to third after a single to right.

The first time an outfielder drops an easy fly ball, an infielder throws a ball over the first baseman’s head or the pitcher airmails one to the backstop, it is mostly caused by a simple lack of concentration or a fundamental error. It is usually the surrounding events that open the floodgates to negative thoughts, and create problems that are hard to get rid of.

A positive environment is essential to creating a positive mindset in each player, and the body language of players and coaches play a pivotal role in that. Body language shown after moments of failure can range from disgust and disappointment to support and love. Failure happens to everyone and can happen at any time, and it’s going to happen more to those who live in a fear of it. Failure needs to be fully accepted in an environment that asks its athletes to push themselves to their physical and mental limits.

Teammates that create an environment of support and love, create an environment that optimizes potential. In this environment, players feel safe to be themselves. They play fearless and practice fearless. They trust each other and respect each other. The next time a player on your team makes a mistake, understand your actions and the actions of the rest of his teammates immediately after the play will play a pivotal role in how that player responds.